Disaster...

[robo]

Trouble with a large hole saw in grp is the pilot hole getting bigger as you drill then the hole saw starts to walk, thats when they start to snag. The method I use is to rivet a small plate in the middle of the hole <anything will do> mask the area you are drilling and drill from the gel coat side inwards. Never had a problem doing it this way even with a 130mm saw. The masking tape is enough to stop the plintering of the gel coat and the small plate will stop the drill walking. Oh and go slowly with a variable speed drill.

Bob

[shh120m]

If you know the ral code, i can have a look see if there is any pigment kicking about. Might not be the same batch and there may be a slight variation but its better than nothing. If ive got the same colour il pop a bit of gel/resin/pigment and a bit of matting in the post.

nathan

[alga]

The prototype car in the book did not have the front wishbone area covered at all, and it's barely noticeable. So I'd bet any reasonably tidy repair won't be noticeable unless you're looking for it.

You could buy a glossy sheet of Lexan or some other plastic as a background for the repair. MarkB, what are good plastics for that purpose?

[MarkB]

Originally Posted by alga

The prototype car in the book did not have the front wishbone area covered at all, and it's barely noticeable. So I'd bet any reasonably tidy repair won't be noticeable unless you're looking for it.

You could buy a glossy sheet of Lexan or some other plastic as a background for the repair. MarkB, what are good plastics for that purpose?

No need to buy anything expensive, an old double glazing unit will do the job these can be found in most skips or down the dump as long as it's big enough of course. Wax it to make sure gel won't stick then clamp side panel to it and off you go....simple really.

[brainbug007]

Thanks alot for all of the suggestions guys. In the end I took your advice and repaired it instead of just cutting the whole section out as I figured trying to make it IVA compliant would end up being more hassle than trying to repair it. As it turned out my neighbor was quite handy with GRP and did a clever repair by kind of re-enforcing it from behind with some metal strips then applying more GRP the back. Luckly where it had cracked in a majority of places you could line the pieces back up and the crack wasn't that noticeble when you look at the shiny side so to speak. The only bit that wasn't fixable was a section along the top kind of between the holes for the top wishbones and the shock absorber so i've got a strip cutout basically between the front hole and the rear hole that kind of looks like an upside down T but at least none of it is over 100mm so once the rubber u channel strips are put on it should be impossible for the IVA man to shove his sphere into the engine bay anywhere so to speak.

[MarkB]

Sounds like you got away with that then, well done

[baz-r]

i have found that grit faced tools for tiles are brillent for cutting grp (jigsaw and hole cutting tools).
minimal chipping of gel and i use blades in my jigsaw free hand without touching the shoe on the panel if i need to do cuts from the outside.
finally opening out to the finished line with a sanding drum or disc.